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I canít remember if I wrote it in here, but the experiment/strategy this year to rely on aging veterans to carry this team failed. While Hester returned this week, we basically had 6 of the team 7 oldest players on the injury report and they represent a big part of the salary cap. While Suggs, Dumervil and Yanda and Steve Smith are very important pieces, we havenít got anything out of Hester and Ben Watson.
We saw yesterday how slow Lardarius Webb has become, and while we havenít seen much of him as the deep safety, that is both a good and bad thing. He was also added to the injury list yesterday and the only players on the field above 30 are now Weddle and Flacco.
It wouldnít surprise me, if we are in for a youth overhaul very soon, because we are really hindered by this strategy, where older more expensive players eat up the salary cap, which prevent us from keeping the best players we have.
I simply canít see us getting rid of Suggs, if he decides to continue, and Yanda should have 2-3 more good years in him. But Smith Sr. and Watson who might both retire, Dumervil as a one dimensional player and Hester and maybe Webb could all be casualties next year.

If we want to do anything, we need to fix the offense, and while I really love the talent on safety and cornerback in next year draft, we need to do something about that oline. We can see how Cowboys have success Ė we should do the same instead of relying on Castillo ďdevelopingĒ talent. A new center/guard should be Pivotal, just see how Mack Solified that oline in Atlanta and how Jets oline feld apart when Mangold left with an injury. We need 2 Olines in next years draft, if we want to actually improve it, rather than being contempt with an average line._________________Ravens 2017 feat. Flaccid Flaccos speedsters and Dean Peas softies

I canít remember if I wrote it in here, but the experiment/strategy this year to rely on aging veterans to carry this team failed. While Hester returned this week, we basically had 6 of the team 7 oldest players on the injury report and they represent a big part of the salary cap.

I've shared this view for a while now. It appears to be the favoured path for Harbs, Ozzie and for Dean Pees. And I simply do not see the wisdom of it. Now, more than ever, football is a young man's game. Rookies come out of the blocks quicker, and the increased physical rigours seem to catch up to older players sooner.

Other teams have recognised this, and look to adapt to it far more quickly than the Ravens. Letting guys like Arthur Brown and Terrence Brooks fester on the bench before eventually severing ties with them simply isn't smart roster building.

Now we can argue about their shortcomings as players, and whether they earned any opportunities that weren't given. But some of that has to come down to coaching as well, and I struggle to think of any players on defense who have been developed well over the last few years, outside of the D-line (which sadly lost its positional coach this year). Pees and his staff just do not seem to be very good at turning potential into reality.

Until the Ravens embrace the fact that they have to give younger players their head, and the fact that they have to hire the best coaches they can, not just guys who Harbs knows and likes, they just won't be able to build long term success.

Same goes for the offense, where a string of unremarkable QB coaches and OCs seem to have actively hurt Joe Flacco's levels of play. And let's not even get started on the O-line coaching._________________